Ohio Birds: A Photo Collection

Just "click on the thumbnails" for successively larger images--small, medium, and HUGE!

White Pelican "Cooperation"

American White Pelican- Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

American White Pelican- Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, Family Pelecanidae. This is a first for me! I never thought any self respecting pelican would live in the Midwest! But, was I wrong....... NOTE the huge ridges on the upper bill of these birds. These CENTERBOARDS signify that these are sexually mature males! "Huge water birds with long flat bills and great throat pouches. Mainly eat fish. The American White Pelican has been known to have a wing span of up to 9.5 feet! Does not plunge from the air like the Brown Pelican but rather scoops up fish while swimming." Often works a team to harvest fish. These fantastic birds were spotted in the Brookville Reservoir in the Whitewater Memorial State Park at the Silver Creek Ramp in extreme western Indiana near the Ohio border. Water levels were low. (Photo: April 10, 2004, Canon 10D, EF 300mm f/4.0L IS USM, 1.4x teleconverter EF ll lens )

Sources of species identification and other amazing info include (1) Cornell Lab of Ornithology--a fantastic site; (2)Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Peterson Field Guide Series, Fifth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company; (3) The National Audubon Society's Sibley Guide to Birds and (4) Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Third Edition, National Geographic, Washington, D.C.